If you have taken two hearing tests months apart, you may have noticed that the results were slightly different from one another. While hearing tests are often thought of as being completely objective measures of hearing ability, they are actually influenced by various biological factors within an individual’s body.
Auditory fatigue is one of the reasons why people may struggle with hearing tests. Spending a morning in a noisy environment, traveling on a busy commute, working in a loud office, watching a blaring television, etc. can leave your ears “recovering” from the excessive noise. The tiny hair cells within the inner ear that are responsible for converting sound waves into electrical signals to the brain can become less responsive to sound waves following prolonged noise exposure. These small changes can have an impact upon the results of hearing tests.
Another factor that may impact the ability of a person to hear is the body’s natural rhythm. The body naturally experiences fluctuations in blood flow and fluid levels throughout the day. These changes may influence the hearing of an individual. For instance, the hearing of a person may be different in the morning compared to the evening of the same day. For a Hearing Test Near Me, visit www.imperialhearing.com/audiologist-near-me/
Other factors can include stress and tiredness. If someone had a restless night of sleep, they may be tired the next day and have difficulty concentrating on the test questions. Concentration is needed for catching the faintest possible beep from the scanner.
These facts do not mean that hearing tests are unreliable. Hearing tests are an effective way of determining hearing levels in people. However, since hearing is a changing sense within the human body, it is not possible to measure hearing in a single number. Therefore, the value of conducting hearing tests over time to monitor changes in an individual’s hearing abilities is much higher than the value of conducting a single hearing test.